Kids playing with fire: experts warn parents to look out for danger signs

One of the most shocking features of the fire emergency in New South Wales is that five children have now been arrested and charged with lighting some of the most dangerous fires.

Among them are an 11-year-old and a 15-year-old who are accused of starting the Heatherbrae blaze which ripped through Port Stephens last week, destroying several buildings and burning out more than 5,000 hectares of bushland.

"In Victoria on Black Saturday, the majority of people who were arrested were youths," he said.

"About a third of [people setting bushfires] in Australia, as far as we can tell, and overseas, tend to be youths."

'Perfectly natural' for kids to be interested in fire

Conrad Walsh, a youth safety coordinator for Fire and Rescue New South Wales, says it is perfectly natural for kids to be interested in fire.

"Children play with fire, they're interested in fire, but usually from a younger age. And it's a natural thing," he said.

"The problem is when they start playing with it. So if they're interested, that's normal, but when they start playing with it, it's not a safe thing for them to do

"And then when they start playing with fire and there are no parents or adults around, that's usually when they find themselves getting into trouble."

Professor Ogloff says the majority of kids grow out of their fascination with fire.

"For most children, the difference is that by the time they enter the school years, and certainly by the time they're hitting puberty and adolescence, obviously the vast majority of children no longer play with matches or try to set fires," he said.

"So we do get a small number of children who maintain some kind of interest in this.

"In a lot of the cases, it's just a prank, something to do when they're bored. In other groups what we do see is, particularly young people who've been setting fires - and I don't know anything about the New South Wales people - but certainly the boys who were charged on Black Saturday with arson causing death in Victoria, this has been publicised, they were both people who had intellectual disability.

"And that's probably one of the reasons they continued with this interest in fire-setting, rather than moving onto other sorts of interests."

Parents urged to keep an eye out for tell-tale signs

Professor Ogloff says there is certain behaviour that parents can watch out for.

"A lot of people who are setting fires are also engaging in other sorts of anti-social behaviour," he said.

"And the other thing is the fire-setting often in groups. So the things that parents need to look out for is just general behavioural problems that children are having.

"Obviously if there's any fascination with fire that seems unusual, then they could share that with a family doctor and potentially someone can try to get help for them.

"Group behaviour ... is a typical problem with adolescents in a lot of areas because it's very difficult to sort of disrupt that, doing what their peers are doing.

"So the tell-tale sign is obviously if police or others identify young people who are setting fires in groups and the individuals need to be intervened with because typically an individual might not do something on his or her own that they would do in a group."

Mr Walsh says concerned parents should contact authorities.

"Fire and Rescue New South Wales has an intervention awareness program," he said.

"So any parent or guardian of children anywhere from about three, four years of age, through to 17-year-olds, if they are concerned with their children in terms of their interest or over-interest in fire, we offer a program where we provide fire safety education and we even do face-to-face discussion with children and families in terms of fire safety.

"So that way we can appease the concerns parents have and educate the young people in regards to fire safety and what's safe and what's not."

Both experts say teaching children from a young age about the dangers, as well as the consequences, of playing with fire is important.